Osceola Players Plan Diverse Season

Entertainment

April 28, 1993|By Jill Duff-Hoppes of The Sentinel Staff

The Osceola Players' 1993-94 season will offer audiences lots of laughs and music and a little drama.

The tentative lineup is The Mousetrap, a play based on an Agatha Christie murder mystery; the comedy My Fat Friend; Of Mice and Men, a drama based on the John Steinbeck novel; and the musicals Annie, Nunsense II . . . The Second Coming and You're a Good Man Charlie Brown.

The selection of the upcoming season came from several sources, Sikorski said. This year a play selection committee made up of Player members and members of the Players' board of directors gave suggestions to the board. The board also made some suggestions.

Those lists were narrowed down and presented to an audience of one of this season's productions, Sikorski said. Audience members were also able to suggest shows not on the list. The season was then finalized from all those suggestions.

''We always take into consideration things the community wants to see,'' Sikorski said. The survey showed that Annie was one of the productions with strong support, she said.

''Basically, we like to have a season that's going to sell,'' Sikorski said.

''We try to pick shows that are well-known,'' she said, such as Annie. But Sikorski said she thinks audiences will also come to see a lesser-known show such as My Fat Friend because of the high quality of Players' productions in the past several years.

''It's not easy choosing a season,'' she said. Problems include the cost of mounting a show and obtaining the rights to stage a production.

Musicals generally sell well but are expensive to stage, she said. For that reason, the Players are offering one less musical next season than they did this season, Sikorski said.

The Players want to stage the upcoming musicals for four weeks and their other productions for three weeks at the Osceola Center for the Arts, she said. Running the musicals for an extra week would give the community more opportunities to see the productions, Sikorski said.

The Mousetrap is set in an English bed and breakfast that is run by a newly married couple. When a group of strangers gets stranded there in a snowstorm, one of them is murdered.

A policeman then enters the scene, probing into the background of each of the remaining guests and rattling a lot of skeletons.

Annie, the well-known show about everyone's favorite redheaded orphan, is a production for the whole family. Annie's life is followed from the orphanage to life with Daddy Warbucks.

Nunsense II . . . The Second Coming is a musical-comedy sequel to Nunsense. The Little Sisters of Hoboken, N.J., are back to give a thank-you performance to the public for helping with the nuns' recent fund-raiser. The Players performed Nunsense this season.

In My Fat Friend, a character named Vicky runs a used bookstore in London and lives in a flat over the bookstore with two roommates.

One day a handsome man comes into the bookstore and is attracted to the overweight Vicky. She decides to slim down with the help of her roommates. While awaiting the return of her gentleman caller, the slimmer Vicky finds a new lease on life.

Of Mice and Men is a story about two roving farmhands, one of whom is strong but simple-minded. The other farmhand has pledged to protect the mentally disabled man, who unwittingly kills a woman.

You're a Good Man Charlie Brown is a show for all ages about Snoopy, Charlie Brown and his friends.

''We want to give the Osceola Players an opportunity to bring a variety of things to the community,'' said Pete Edwards, executive director of the arts center. ''I think this season does that. There's really something in there for everybody.''